In a book about the Pioneer Families of Cleveland there is a story about a SEAMAN family from Saratoga, NY: The Pioneer Families of Cleveland, Vol 1 Author: Gertrude Van Rensselaer Wickham This 1914 first volume of a two-volume set begins with the settling in 1796, the first child born, first marriage, and is chronolgically told, sub-chaptered by family name. Bibliographic Information: Wickham, Gertrude Van Rensselaer. The Pioneer Families of Cleveland, Vol 1. Evangelical Publishing House, 1914. John Seaman was the son of John and Elisabeth Seaman, whose home was near Saratoga, N. Y. His father died when he was a mere lad, and he was brought up in the family of Orin Sage of Rochester, N. Y., and by him taught the trade of shoemaking. The relation between employer and apprentice was often a pleasant one, followed by life-time friendships. Mrs. Seaman was Cleora Augusta Stevens, daughter of Levi and Lucy Boynton Stevens of Middlebury, Vt. They removed to Rochester, N. Y., when she was a child. At seventeen years of age she was married and started on a wedding trip to the village of Cleveland at the period when the wedding-bonnet was a green calash, and the long journey made by canal-boat and stage-coach. Her parents in after years followed her to Cleveland and died here. Mrs. Lucy Boynton Stevens is said to have been a lovely woman. The population of Cleveland when the Seamans arrived was about 1000. With W. T. Smith, under the firm name of "Seaman and Smith," Mr. Seaman started a boot, shoe, and leather-store at 41 Superior street. The Seaman homestead was at 117 Seneca street, and the family were charter-members of the First Baptist church, which, in those days, met in a little upper room of the St. Clair street school-house corner of Academy Lane, now headquarters of the fire department. So poor and struggling was the village life, that the oil-lamps the society used for evening services were seized for debt. The elegant and costly structure corner of Prospect and Kennard streets is the child of the small society of 1832. Mrs. Seaman sang in the choir, and was a leader in all its social and religious affairs. Three of her younger children died, and her health became affected. She was sent to Philadelphia to recuperate, and while there to pass away the time, she attended medical lectures in the Women's Medical College of that city. She always had had a taste in that direction, had a large library of books on hygiene, etc., and had studied the subject. Upon her return to Cleveland, she longed to add to the medical knowledge she had gained while away, so Mr. Seaman fitted up a comfortable armchair in the little gallery of the small Homeopathic college in Cleveland that she might continue hearing lectures, as it seemed an excellent way to take her mind off the loss of her children, and keep her well. She entered the examinations in competition with the men, and stood third or fourth from the top. Her success encouraged other women to follow her example, and the college, taking alarm, closed its doors to women. Backed by sympathetic friends, Mrs. Seaman started a medical college for her sex, which existed until the larger one was again willing to receive students of both sexes. She began practising medicine in a quiet way, but never pushed herself, never hung out a sign, or went out of her home, but was very successful in helping women who, from the nature of their illness, could not or would not go to men physicians. Her husband's income was sufficient for all her needs, and she began by making no charge for her advice or treatment until she found herself imposed upon; after which she exacted a small fee from those able to pay it, and used that money to assist the poor and unfortunate. One room in her house was called the "Lord's room," and sufferers beyond help and given up by the doctors were cared for there. Her daughter remembers a helpless, bed-ridden woman with her limbs drawn up through the agony of pain, being lifted from the alley in which she lived and carried into this room where she remained several years, and so helped was she by the kindness and skill there received that she was able to walk with the aid of a cane, and leaning upon it, she was one of the sincerest mourners at Mrs. Seaman's funeral which occurred in 1869. The latter died while on a visit to her daughter, Mrs. Lucy Bainbridge, in Providence, R. I. Children of John and Cleora Seaman: Henry Seaman, m. Louise Barr of Buffalo. Lucy Stevens Seaman, m. William F. Bainbridge of Elmira, N. Y. Charles Seaman, m. Carrie Athon of Indianapolis. Mr. and Mrs. John Seaman rest in Woodland cemetery.